So, do you need a Dungeon Master’s Guide? Almost all DMs will need a Dungeon Master’s Guide. The DM Guide contains indispensable advice and rules for running an adventure or a campaign. But it also gives Dungeon Masters lots of tables needed to run a game. You need a Dungeon Master’s Guide to run your gaming sessions. Of course, you don’t need to use your Dungeon Master guide all the time. Do You Need To Keep.dmg Files Dames Making Games is a not-for-profit videogame arts organization founded in Toronto in 2012. We run a wide range of programs and events for women, nonbinary, femme and queer folks interested in games. All you really need to do is double-click the DMG file to open it and mount it to your Mac. The DMG mounts in two places: on your desktop and in the Finder sidebar under your hard drive. Clicking either one of these opens the DMG file. When you open a DMG file, you’ll usually see two things: the app and a link to your applications folder. With actual quandaries in hand you'll get much more from these resources than you will reading-even memorizing-the DMG. Because the DMG, containing many good things (and hints), is as well laid out as almost any D&D (TSR or WotC) product: it's a great reference once you already know (basically) how to do the thing it purports to present. After installing DMG Extractor, all you have to do is double-click your DMG file to open it up. You can browse the files right in the DMG Extractor window if you just want to see what’s inside the DMG file. If you need to extract the file, click the “Extract” button on the toolbar, and then choose one.
Let’s face it. Books for Dungeons & Dragons are expensive. The Dungeon Master’s Guide is no exception. You might wonder if you can run your games without a DM guide.
So, do you need a Dungeon Master’s Guide? Yes. Almost all DMs will need a Dungeon Master’s Guide. The DM Guide contains indispensable advice and rules for running an adventure or a campaign. But it also gives Dungeon Masters lots of tables needed to run a game. You need a Dungeon Master’s Guide to run your gaming sessions.
Of course, you don’t need to use your Dungeon Master guide all the time. How often you need your DM guide really depends on your game. Here are my personal tips for using your Dungeon Master’s Guide effectively.
Learning How to be a Dungeon Master
Before you plan a grand scale campaign where the universe is at stake, you must first understand the fundamentals. That’s where your greatest weapon comes into play: The Dungeon Master’s Guide. Mazda toolbox for os xfluidrenew.
The DMG provides tips, tricks, and tools to help you Dungeon Master a game. Whether it’s a serious on-going campaign or a goofy one-shot, the DMG is designed to be easily read by all DM’s – be it experience or learning. But there is so much to learn. Where to start?
What Parts of the DM Guide do You Need to Read First?
Start out with the introduction (p.4 – 6). It briefly explains everything about the Dungeon Master’s Guide; from what being a DM actually means to how to use the book itself.
While the DM Guide is an excellent learning tool and resource book. The sequence in which chapters are laid out can be a little confusing.
For instance, the first two chapters (p. 9 – 68) deal with Gods and the multiverse. But they also cover details like dialects. That’s not the first thing you need to know if you’re a beginning DM or just learning about 5th edition D&D. Instead – after reading the introduction – I would skip to (p.25 – 38) which covers creating a campaign, play style, tiers of play, and flavor of fantasy.
Next, I would skip to chapter three: Creating adventures, and just continue from there. You can always come back to parts you skipped later.
No matter your game style, most Dungeon Masters will also need to read through part three of the DMG (Chapter 8, p. 235). It discusses various rules of the game. And dealing with experience points (p. 260) is something you’ll want a firm handle on before your first session.
Need To Build A World? The DMG Has Got You Covered!
Now that you understand the basics of 5e edition Dungeon Mastering, let’s focus on building your world. Your Dungeon Master’s Guide can help with your 42’s – what’s the deeper meaning to your character’s lives, universe, and everything in between?
Especially useful for homebrew worlds, a third of the Dungeon Master’s Guide is dedicated to helping you build your game world. It provides great examples of how to make your world more immersive for you and your players. Now is the time to read those parts you skipped earlier.
Building things like societies and religions are skills all DMs need and the Dungeon Master’s Guide provides them and more! The DMG poses questions that you might forget or overlook when building a game world and highlights the idea of adding depth into your game, be it in the history of a decayed pantheon (From p. 10) or a city ran through Magocracy (From p. 15).
While all of these resources are great, the DM guide doesn’t teach you how to do improvise. It doesn’t even teach you how to weave elements into a story. That’s why, here at DungeonVault, we’ve created Dungeon Master Class. It’s a free 5 lesson email course that will teach you how to play D&D without any prepwork. Perfect for both beginners and veterans. Scroll to the bottom of this page to sign up!
Needing the DMG During Your Game
You will need the DM Guide to learn how to DM and to prepare your games. But what about using the book during gaming sessions?
Apples target market apple inc.    case study 2017. Even though your DM screen will probably contain some useful basic rules, it’s always helpful to have your Dungeon Master’s Guide to hand during gaming sessions – you never know when your players may decide to swan dive off a giant and into a crocodile’s gullet! And they will be looking to you for a ruling.
Do You Need A Dmg To Dmg
Bearing three hundred and twenty pages of content, it would be hard for any Dungeon Master to not need the DMG at some point. While the DM Guide has super-useful tables and advice for in-game use, unfortunately, they are irregularly spread throughout the book.
Below is a table of my personal note-worthy page numbers and their ratings (I’ve rated them on how applicable they can be to the average campaign and will change depending on your personal game).
Wuxia Weapons
Bored of saying “Enemy X, wielding a spear”? A useful table of alternative weapons to add more flavor to your game! Especially effective if you have a monk in your party and want unique monasteries. Page number 41.
More Weapons
Maybe your campaign isn’t set quite so in the middle ages? Here are some various weapons brought on by technological advancements. Page number 267.
Plane Simple
Summaries of the inner planes and their contents. Always handy to have on the fly. Page number 43.
Outer Plane List
Outer Planes. There’s a bunch of them. If you can’t remember or forget about the details of the great wheel cosmology, it’s easy to quickly flick through them during your session. Page number 58.
XP Chart
A must-have for most campaigns. Less useful if you are working with milestones. Still, most DMs will use this every gaming session. Page number 82.
Build-A-NPC
This is a great tool for when your players want to approach a generic NPC instead of the intricately designed, plot important character you spent three days making. Mac photography nc. I love how easy this is. Page number 90.
Weather
It is something we DMs easily forget about and yet, there is always some type of weather. And it will affect things like mood, visibility, choice of clothing and so on. It’s good getting into the habit of describing the weather once or twice each gaming session. Page number 110.
Underwater Rules
Great for when your players want to go swimming with krakens! And they will, Gods help us they will. Page number 115.
Vehicles
Your players will get tired of traveling by foot, particularly at higher levels – they’ll find a ride soon enough! There is so much untapped potential in just finding the perfect ride. Page number 119.
Travel
Your players have got to move right? A great tool for remembering how fast. Page number 242.
Under Siege
It’s not every day you get to DM a siege, some good siege items to add more flavor and action to your world. Page number 255.
It’s A Trap!
Traps are fun. Well, not for the players. Helps build fun death traps when your players like to snoop in places that haven’t been fully designed yet! The rules are so simple you can build most traps on the fly which makes this a great in-game resource. Page number 121.
Magical Mishaps
Got some mischievous magical shenanigans? here are some cool effects! Personally, I love to combine these with the traps. Page number 140.
Treasure Tables
Everyone likes some shinies! Helps you provide some rewards for your players, without needing much forethought. For most DMs this is the number one reason to buy the Dungeon Master Guide. And not without reason. There are so many great goodies here, besides all the shinies, that is. Page number 137.
Magic Items Descriptions
Great for making your players feel more powerful. Loads of pre-built items, so you don’t have to design them yourself. Page number 150.
Other Rewards
Are gems and gold getting old? These pages provide some inspiration to keep rewards fresh. Page number 227.
Poisons & Diseases
Want to give characters a slow and painful death? Here are a few pages on how to do just that. Page number 257.
Lingering Damage
Want to add more drama to your fights? Maybe an unexpected Natural 20 has been rolled and someone needs a serious injury? Lingering damage could be just what you are looking for! Page number 272.
The First Half Of The Name Of The Game!
Maybe your players have found some ancient tombs that you haven’t yet fleshed out? Use these pages to quickly generate an interesting dungeon. Page number 293.
Monsters By Environment
Do You Need A Dmg To Dmc
Has your druid just asked what type of beasties they can find in the local swamp? Here’s a good list for you! Page number 302.
Monsters By CR
Did you forget your session notes and need to pretend you didn’t? Here’s your answer to not throw a random monster and kill them! Or do… It’s you’re game. Page number 306.
Needing A DMG But Don’t Have One?
There are many ways the Dungeon Master’s Guide can enhance your game. And even if you know most of the content by heart, I find that rereading parts reminds me of things I’ve let slip.
In conclusion: The content of the DM Guide is top-notch, really well written, useful, and easy to understand. The way chapters are laid out can make it a bit hard to find tables fast during your game. But the table in this article should take care of that. Just copy the parts you like onto the backside of our free bookmark, stick it in your DM Guide and you’re set!
By Daniel Ball and Paul Camp, (Cover image: WotC)
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Since this and other similar questions get asked on a fairly frequent basis I have written up a quick guide which hopefully hits the salient points and which at the same time provides a reasonable synopsis of the position. Do let me know if I've missed anything of value. Assuming you think it's of value I'll sticky it in due course.
License considerations:
If you are a player then all you need is the demo license of Fantasy Grounds provided that the DM has an Ultimate license. If the DM only has a standard license then you will need a standard license too.
If you are a DM then having the Ultimate license will allow all of your players to join your game with only the demo license. If you have only a standard license then all of your players are going to need a standard license too.
The ONLY difference between a Standard and an Ultimate license is that with the latter players can join your game with only a demo license. There is absolutely no difference in the content included with either license. No 5e manuals (PHB, DMG, MM etc) are included in ANY license – they are all separate purchases.
What comes with the license?
With a demo license you can access the 5e SRD and basic rules (as from April 2018). This will allow you to create some basic characters with all of the limits that come with the SRD and basic rules (see below).
With a Standard or Ultimate license you get the 5th edition ruleset built in, the D&D basic rules and the 5e SRD. The ruleset is what allows you to handle a game of 5e D&D. It allows you to handle character creation, combat and a multitude of other things. However it is only a tool – it does not include content such as the PHB etc.
With the Basic Rules and the SRD you can create characters, encounters, treasures and everything else that you would need to play a game of 5e. However these modules are very much cut down versions of the Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide and Monster Manual. You will not get the following with the SRD; for characters most of the archetypes, backgrounds, race options and almost all of the feats are missing. For NPCs many of them are missing, as well as all of the background information and all of the artwork. For the DMG; many magic items are missing; all of the dungeon creation and alternative rules are missing as well as all of the treasure tables and many other things.
What do I really need to play 5e?
First of all this depends on whether you are a player or a DM. As a player the only thing you need is a demo or Standard license as noted above. You need nothing else, but see the information on the PHB below. Whilst it isn't necessary for you to own this you might want to in order to create characters offline (provided you have at least a standard license).
As a DM this is a more difficult decision. The three core rulebooks – the PHB, DMG and MM have all been written and optimised for Fantasy Grounds. This means that many features in the FG versions are not available in the paper version. So for convenience alone the purchases are worth it. However here’s some further information on how each of the three volumes might, or might not, be for you.
PHB:
Primarily the PHB is concerned with character creation and the rules for actually playing the game. If you own the PHB then you can make it available to your players so that they can create their characters. Full drag and drop functionality means that players can drag a class, race, background and equipment into their character sheet and (almost) everything will be set up for them ready to play.
Note, however, that the character sheet is not a character builder so some manual intervention is required to get the best out of the character.
The drag and drop functionality links sections of the character sheet to the Player’s Handbook so the player (or the DM) can click on these links to open the relevant section. Of all three of the core rulebooks the consensus is that the PHB is pretty much essential for its ease of use and functionality.
MM:
If you are going to be creating your own campaigns (as opposed to purchasing adventures) as a DM then the Monster Manual will be a very desirable module to own. All of the NPCs are in there complete with background information and full colour artwork that can be shared with players. NPCs from the MM can be dropped into encounters and from there onto the Combat Tracker and onto maps. Each will have a token representing the NPC as well as all the statistics, attacks and defences of the NPC. When placed on the CT the NPCs attacks, spells and other abilities will show up on the CT and as DM you will be able to use those by simply double clicking on the attack, ability or effect.
If you plan to use only published adventures then the MM is perhaps less of a necessity since all of the NPCs in those adventures will come with it.
DMG:
The Dungeons Master’s Guide contains information on how to create worlds, dungeons, campaigns, NPCs, treasures and other rewards as well as detailed guidance on running a game and generally how to be a DM. It also contains many pages of magic items and a huge number of tables for rolling up random treasures, dungeons, personalities and a host of other things.
Whether you need any of this might also depend on whether you intend to make up your own adventures or run published ones. However even if you fall into the latter category the lure of those magic items is great – and with a single roll of a dice you can create a treasure parcel down to the smallest detail. If you roll a sword it will tell you what kind of sword; if you roll a scroll it will tell you what scroll you got; or what gem; or what armour or what potion.
Wherever possible the tables in the DMG have been optimised for use in FG like this. You roll once and if the table entry directs you to roll elsewhere then that roll is made too.
In summary then, the three core rulebooks are not essential but depending on how you run your game it could make life a lot easier, give your players a host of options, give you easy access to information and rules as well as cutting prep time by a considerable amount. It is worth mentioning also that if you have the time and inclination you could add all of the information into Fantasy Grounds yourself and create your own modules for personal use.